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I thought we could share ideas on keeping cool in this heatwave. Here's some I've done.

1) Have windows open but curtains closed in the rooms with direct sun

2) Run a wet mop over the tiled floors in the house, makes the rooms lovely and cool while it evaporates!

3) I've old fashioned stoneware hot water bottles I've picked up at car boot sales for a couple of quid. I fill them with crushed ice and cold water and put them in with the rabbit and guinea pigs, they lie up against them and sleep. Could be useful for other furry pets.

4) Filled empty bottles with water and keeping them in the fridge to make super cold squash for me and the kids.

My DDs dogs get walked first thing in the morning then after the sun goes down in the evening The back door is left open, if they want to go into the garden they can, but the little terrier (who had a hair cut last week ) likes to lie under the stairs or on their leather sofa to keep cool.

I too open the windows and shut the curtains during the day. DD has some wrist stretchy things that we run under the tap and put on our wrists to keep cool (bit like smaller alice bands )Being sensible and keeping your skin moisturized helps I always have a pack of wet wipes that I take with me that have been in the freezer when we go (as we will today ) to the beach. Lots of bottles of cold tap water rather than fizzy stuff is pretty good for you as well.

For us, it's easy to keep cool by creating a through-draft - to be fair we spend quite a lot of time trying to stop drafts! - we just open the loo window and the kitchen door, which are on opposite sides of the house, and simple natural air-flow does the rest. It helps that there are deciduous trees to the south and west, so we're shaded too. Most people might think our little garden's a tad overgrown, but at times like this it pays off; OH & DD1 are very fair-skinned, burn easily, and shade is important for them. Even the cats are lying in the shade at the moment!

[QUOTE=thriftwizard;72714108]For us, it's easy to keep cool by creating a through-draft - to be fair we spend quite a lot of time trying to stop drafts! - we just open the loo window and the kitchen door, which are on opposite sides of the house, and simple natural air-flow does the rest. It helps that there are deciduous trees to the south and west, so we're shaded too. Most people might think our little garden's a tad overgrown, but at times like this it pays off; OH & DD1 are very fair-skinned, burn easily, and shade is important for them. Even the cats are lying in the shade at the moment![/

We do the same. Open window upstairs on one side of the house and downstairs on the other.

My bedroom is in a dormer and has no insulation so it is freezing in winter and tropical in summer.
Last night it was 25 degrees at 2.30am with the air cooler on.
I have one window facing south and a bigger one facing west, windows that only open a crack and none of the famous sea breeze at all.

I don't do heat. On holiday I am ridiculed as while everyone is moving the chairs to follow the sun round, I am moving mine in the opposite direction to follow the shade.

Come January I am going to be SO ashamed of this post!

x

I believe that friends are quiet angels
Who lift us to our feet when our wings
Have trouble remembering how to fly.

I really do not like the heat......if disability allowed I would be doing my rain-dance right about now!

In addition, I live in a ground-floor flat....we are advised to keep the windows shut overnight - which is stifling! (Unfortunately we DO get intruders....last one only a few weeks ago - so precautions are necessary)....and the windows of my flat all face the same direction, so no through-draft possible, when the sun comes around there is no escape!

My personal tips for staying cool are:

Cool- but not COLD showers!

I have lost quite a bit of weight (which has helped a bit with staying cool!)...and have kept a few tee-shirt nighties in large sizes....over-sized cotton nighties are good for staying cool overnight.

Keep well-hydrated...and tap-water is as good as anything else for this!

I keep a tub of frozen berries in the freezer....a glass of water with a few frozen berries added is very refreshing.

Keep photos of cooler climes to hand....somehow I find it cooling to look at photos of mountains, rivers and lakes!

If I need to go out, then I try and get it done as early as possible.

Move as slowly as possible.

If your work/life schedule allows, then go continental - enjoy a light siesta...sleep through an hour of the worst heat!

Above all....remember that this is the UK...the summer is not going to last for much longer....the glorious, blissful season of Autumn will be here before we know it!

I bought a pineapple, rtc, chunked it up and froze on a tray to keep the pieces seperate. I add a couple of the frozen chunks to cold drinks. Very refreshing. I know others do this with lemon or orange slices.

Close curtains first thing in the morning, open north facing windows and one other if possible, to encourage draft / cooler air. Yes, cool compresses are good.

DH has a manual job and came in yester and just stripped off by the washing machine, before he got any further. Good job the neighbours were out!

I love it when it is still hot at night, I sleep like a log.

I also love my cheapo linen skirt, slightly odd very pale mint colour, on the sale rail for £11 a couple of years ago. It is cool to wear and weirdly goes with most tops I have.

Not really an issue here but a bucket/basin of cold water to "steep" your feet is fab for generally cooling you down, likewise as PN said running your wrists under a cold tap is good to.
Loose clothes and natural fibres are my "go to" warm weather wear.

Like Prinzezzilien, I am in a groundfloor flat and can't have my windows wide open. I can have them tilted a few inches, and do, but have to shut the bedroom window when I go to bed because the late evening into the small hours is pretty noisy here, with clubbers etc rattling around the city centre.

I'd switched to evening gardening a week or so ago, as in post 7.30 pm, but it was still sweltering yestereve and I came out of a supermarket just before 10 pm and it was like walking into an oven.

Sooo, today (just shy of 30 celcius) I headed out at 07.30 am. Some runners were already out training. I gardened from 8-10.20 then gently walked home.

Have the curtains drawn here and laundry drying. You can cool your through-draft by hanging a wet cloth up.

Other than that, I had a tepid bath to get rid of gardening grubbiness and have been drinking plenty of plain water and black tea.

Trick is to move gently, keep properly hydrated and enjoy it while it lasts.

Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.John RuskinVeni, vidi, eradici(I came, I saw, I kondo'd)

Windows open, having an upside down house with the sitting room upstairs with my bedroom and a cat, this means for me only opening them on the lock , that's just about an inch

Keeping curtains closed on the rooms facing the sun

Cotton. Cotton bedding as well as clothing. I wear sfa in bed other then a smile . But have a cotton top sheet and a light weight cotton blanket to pull on and off.

If I'm not going out I wear a cotton shortie nightie around the house. Keeps me cool, no one is going to see me, easily washed and dried. If the door bell goes, I chuck a dressing gown on and wrap a towel around my head to pretend I'm just out the shower

Food, as light as possible. Tonight was a roast chicken I cooked early this morning whilst the house wasn't too warm. Served with corn on the cob ( just one saucepan boiling away tonight) jacket spuds ( microwaved) and salad

I'm more then happy to light the BBQ and live on burgers,sausages etc with salads End of the day this kind of weather doesn't last long so it's not going to kill me

Housework, sod it. There's more then enough wet cold days to do that

Basically I just do as little as possible and take as much time as possible to enjoy the good weather

I turn down the thermostat on my hot water boiler/heater during hot weather. The last thing I want/need is a hot shower so no point heating the water to a high temperature just to drown it out by turning up the cold tap.

3) I've old fashioned stoneware hot water bottles I've picked up at car boot sales for a couple of quid. I fill them with crushed ice and cold water and put them in with the rabbit and guinea pigs, they lie up against them and sleep. Could be useful for other furry pets.

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